The fight over schools heats up

PRIVATE SCHOOLS PUSH TO OPEN

The Australian ($) reports that a network of Victorian private schools has called for the ability to reopen campuses in regions largely unaffected by COVID-19, even as Premier Dan Andrews digs in on plans to maintain online learning for the rest of term two.

The call came as federal Education Minister Dan Tehan wrote to all non-government schools offering to bring forward $3.2 billion in national funding to re-open campuses immediately and return to at least 50% face-to-face teaching levels before the end of May.

PRISONS IN LOCKDOWN

According to The Age, Victoria’s Fitzroy Legal Service and Human Rights Law Centre have filed a Supreme Court case against the state government, to be heard today, on behalf of a prisoner with multiple medical conditions fearing a COVID-19 outbreak in jail.

The Andrews government, unlike NSW last month, has thus far resisted calls from legal groups to release vulnerable and/or non-serious offenders amidst the pandemic. While Victoria has not yet recorded a case in prison, a quick scan of Australian case law shows “COVID-19” has been accepted by judges as “exceptional circumstances” in granting bail, amongst other decisions.

WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? According to The Legal Aid Society, New York’s Rikers Island prison has jumped from an infection rate of 3% last month to 9.9% today. In Peru, a riot over fears of the virus has left nine people dead.

AUS V CHINA CONTINUES

The Australian Financial Review ($) reports that a comment piece in the Communist Party’s mouthpiece publication, the People’s Daily, has accused Scott Morrison of attempting to deflect domestic “anger” over the pandemic and summer bushfires in campaigning for a COVID-19 probe.

The piece, a rare direct criticism of Morrison, comes shortly after The Guardian reports the objectively much funnier description of Australia as “gum stuck to the bottom of China’s shoe” in a state media outlet.

However, The Age reports that, even as officials from both countries swap intermittent barbs with calls to de-escalate the situation, the ANU has released new research revealing 20 years of flare-ups have not put any lasting dents in the trade relationship.

STATE WRAP

AND THE WINNER IS...

Finally, in what could be the hardest pill to swallow, the Logies have been cancelled. As he has been more than happy to point out, last year’s Gold Logie winner Tom Gleeson now technically wins another term.